Low Back Pain, Disability and Quality of Life among Health Care Workers

Health workers usually have the highest incidence of work-related back injuries which influence their work. Low back pain patients suffer not only from physical discomfort but also from functional disabilities that may cause impairment and interfere with their quality of life. This study is aimed at evaluating low back pain, disability and quality of life among health care workers. This is a descriptive study which was conducted at four primary health care centres in Tabuk. Non-probability purposive sampling method was used to select 120 health workers. For data collection, the three tools used were a pre-established questionnaire, Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire for evaluating pain and disability, and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) for evaluating the quality of life. Disability was found in 70.8% of the studied sample. Total quality of life score was low in 77.5% of the studied sample and there was a highly significant negative correlation between total quality of life score and total back pain of the studied sample. Low back pain continues to be a common occupational disease for health workers. This health issue would also have an important impact on their job and the quality of healthcare as well. In order to decrease Low back pain, health care workers should be included in specific education program. A consistent methodological strategy for optimizing the qualiy of life problem among health care workers should be developed by health care managers.